Monthly Archives: September 2015

Monday, awake at 5:30 – great snooze, school run, dropped some of Mia’s clothes at her mom’s house, Waterstone gym, swim – had the pool all to myself, work, Radlof park walk, a walk around Mia’s school – very pretty, parent teacher meeting with Naulene – the teacher said Mia is doing very well – tip top in fact – super proud – much better than earlier this year, had a long chat about food at school, took Mia to W Cafe for fresh juices, supper and a well-done treat, book shop – bargain science and biology encyclopedia deal, dropped Mia at her mom’s house and told her I’ll see her at the wedding in Pretoria, sunset drive to Cape Town, blogging with a glass of MKM2010, nice so see Mia a bit more on a Monday.

Seems the sun is up at 6:30 these days. Might even do an early Lions Head walk soon.

“This is the Mia I knew in Grade 1.” — Mia’s teacher, happy with her work and all round well being.

“How often I found where I should be going by setting out somewhere else.” — Buckminster Fuller

Tuesday, walked to the office, financial model tinkering, took a lunchtime walk past the Sea Point pool (see above) – still a bit cold / 15degC – to the Rhino along the Promenade and had lunch at Sobaba again, gym, killer abs, 1h spinning class, swim – I was really not in the mood for spinning, but I’m happy I went anyway.

Suicide gorge should be pretty easy this year. Getting fit a bit earlier than usual. We’re booked for December if you want to join?

I’m quitting coffee again – mostly because Mia pointed out that I said I should and I still had a cup on Monday. No more flat whites – only Rooibos cappuccinos. It starts with a few random weekend breakfast coffees in social situations – and the next thing you know you feel fatigued all the time, not sleeping well and you feel you need coffee to start the day. Evil. At the rate you see new coffee shops opening – 1/2 of the working population must be addicted and battling with chronic adrenal depletion.

Wednesday, blood test at Wellness Warehouse, some painful admin with getting a credit card PIN reset – discovered my drivers license expired last year *sigh*, a chai tea with Ingi at the cheese place in Bree St – we chatted animated videos, marriages needing a 3 year renewal clause, oh and AfrikaBurn collaborations, haircut at Yogi’s, packed for Joburg, drove to the airport with Georg and had a glass of Chardonnay, BA business class flight (only flight available with Avios when I booked), wrote my best man speech on the plane, ERnst fetched us from the airport, very nice salmon braai at Owen’s house, with Tim, Wendy and the AfrikaBurn 2013/2014 gang, shots of Owen’s tequila (with the tip of his finger in the bottle).

Owen (of AfrikaBurn fame) managed to rip off the tip of his finger in a Scuba accident, falling backwards into the water from a boat – holding on to a rope used to secure the tanks – and then the finger got preserved in a Patrone tequila bottle.

Friday, fetched Georg from Anton’s house, found myself a new black suit in the Rosebank mall, brunch with Georg, gym at Old Eds (Houghton), swimming cap fail – it split in two as I was about to get into the pool, Vumatel shop visit and a drink at Wolfpack / 9th Avenue Parkhurst, read my best man book (again) in Anton’s garden – while keeping the dog company, walked to dinner with Ernst, Lisa, Matthew and Georg – rib-eye and chimichurri sauce at Turn ‘n Tender, Ernst had a story about comparing the calluses on his hands with a co-worker – the new new Fight Club… CrossFit, walked home with Georg trying to make phone calls to Lagos (the real Lagos), watched Birdman, woke up at 3:30 and took a battery out of a clock.

Lisa had a funny story about how people over 180kg get sent to use the Zoo’s MRI machine.

I feel like I’ve only really worked out how to eat, exercise and sleep recently. How crazy is that? I’ve become a real believer in continuous fitness and continuous learning.

Why don’t all the Virgin Actives have swimwear drying machines?

Ernst is a legend. Great weekend. Thanks Ernst!

I think I want to go to Prague for my 40th.

Saturday, up early, managed to destroy a kettle at Anton’s house – not my best – that expensive metallic looking kettle looked a lot like a gas stove kettle – we did a quick Mr Wolf clean-up, breakfast in Rosebank with Ernst and Georg, Gautrain ride to Hatfield / Pretoria with Georg, Uncle Jack fetched us from the train station, pre-wedding dress up and some Ataraxia Chardonnay with Jacques, Neil, Uncle Jack and Georg – shirts getting ironed, folding pocket squares and making sure ties were straight, Jacques’ and Marietjie’s wedding at Woodhill Golf Estate (Garsfontein), beautiful wedding, 30degC at 15:30 in a black suit, I think I did pretty well with my (Afrikaans) best man speech – Mia probably had no clue what was going on, Jacques made a good speech – and looked good in his suit (see below) – our 10kg weight loss plan worked well, watched the end of a great rugby game, general wedding party fun, Georg caught the wedding garter and danced with Marisca who caught the bouquet, nice to see Jaco and Hein, watched more rugby and played pool at Jovani’s house – who is moving to Sydney at the end of the year – good reason to go Scuba diving in Aus.

I think I’ve developed a fear of making tea, on gas stoves.

After a few JHB vs CPT chats, I think it’s safe to say people in Joburg/Pretoria get married more often… and they like smoking.

Memories of listening to Dire Straits driving home with Jovani – nice sound system in their Jeep.

Sunday, spent most of the day with my mom and Mia, woke up at Jovani’s house, brunch with Jacques and Marietjie, Jovani, Georg, Mia and my mom, visited my mom’s house – seems my mom still drives around without a safety belt on, sigh, tea and cheesecake around Lynnwood Bridge, chats with Mia about why pack animals evolved to find breakups painful, arrived at the airport just in time – thanks Jovani, flight back to Cape Town with Mia and Georg – I had a nap while Mia read her Kindle books – 5/7 Harry Potter books read now – helped Mia work out why it’s quicker to fly from Cape Town to Joburg than the other way, Mia went home (past her bed time) with her Granddad, quick photo downloads and backups – I’m such a paranoid photographer.

Cheesecake day is the new pizza day. Something I learnt from having tea with Ingi.

This family thing is actually pretty cool. Nice to see everybody. Looks like I’m spending Xmas with Mia, my mom, Jacques, Marietjie and Charlot.

Great wedding. 4 very cool days in JHB/PTA. Perfect mini-break. Really felt like a holiday. Just busy enough – and pretty stress free for a Joburg visit.

Hmm. Those items that pop up 4+ times in your notes. Just can’t ignore them.

It’s going be be a good summer. Jacques is here most of December. Note to self: get crayfish diving fit – check wetsuit.

Friday, pitch deck dry run, Met with Alex and Fred at Stomme Jonge, Landbousaal visit, lunch with Fred at Greengate, coffee with Marlise at Hazz, Ian’s new Big Data Lab visit, a glass of wine and some biltong at De Warenmarkt with Dirk and Philip (who is almost 3yo now), Mia’s school concert: “Who’s Afraid” – she played DJ Simple Simon, drove to Cape Town with Mia and had some frogurt in Kloof Street.

Nice to spend some time with Alex and pondering big ideas, very refreshing.

The first part of life is all about working out boundaries and the second part is all about questioning them and breaking them down. Some Fred wisdom.

I’m still busy imagining Joe 6.0.

Not sleeping well for a few days in a row can really mess with your week. That, and they moved the ‘new note’ button in the iOS9 notes app. Painful.

I’ve been thinking about ways of spending more time with Mia. I see her about ten days in a month at the moment. Not bad, but I really get the feeling she’s not going to be a child for very much longer.

Saturday, mega carb day, Bircher Muesli and fresh juices in Wembley Square with Mia while we processed the photos of her school play, a swim at The Point gym, 3 hours on Clifton 1st with Mia, Georg, Cath and Alan (see below), Da Vinci’s pizza, watched the end of a pretty lame SA vs Japan world cup rugby match after getting BBC iPlayer to work on an iPad via the Apple TV, in bed early.

Sunday, up early to catch up on some reading, walked to brunch with Wouter, Zander and Mia at Bootleggers / Bantry Bay – flapjacks treat, tweaked Mia’s bicycle breaks etc and swapped a car tyre, Mia and I cycled to the Waterfront to go get an oversized pencil case (space case) for her and have a late lunch – stopped for ice cream on the promenade, great weather, Hamley’s V&A visit, cycled back via Green Point Park, we bumped into Philippa, Mia had a bit of a morale failure about one block from the house – tears of exhaustion from cycling up the hill, some Futurama cheered her up – it was her first real city cycling adventure – avoiding cars etc, photo processing and blogging with a glass of MKM2010, such a perfect day.

Super weekend.

Explore the World and Take Risks. Makes for a good story. I went for a promenade walk with Dave Duarte recently – who I have not really seen since 2011 days – in telling him my story of 2012-2015 and I kinda realised what an adventure it has been.

Monday, awake at 5:50 – blissful 10 minutes of snoozing, cold and wet school run, work, gym, swim, iWeek at Spier – lots of familiar faces from a past life – but in general… pretty boring, drove to Cape Town, office, arrived home to more than two boxes of wine in our garage, drove to Stellenbosch with Georg, Joshua Bell and US Camerata at The Endler Hall – very good, thanks Georg, babies don’t sleep this well.

“It takes a very long time to become young.” — Pablo Picasso

Tuesday, 24h fast, walked to the office, managed to get our new home internet connection to work, spinning class, sunset promenade walk (see above), spent some time researching TRE.

We now have a new home 10Mbps fixed wireless link and much better indoor wifi. So long lame ADSL line.

I have this theory about why late 30s entrepreneurs do well – you have to be very optimistic and excited about a business to go raise money, if at that age you can be excited and really be having fun in a pitch it’s probably a good business idea.

I again realised this week how important it is to keep setting new goals for fitness. End of Sept, beach look, 10% body fat, visible abs etc. Lose 3kg – get to 77kg.

Thursday, one year later, swim, office, fibre cabling meeting, more investor deck making, CoFi meeting with Dominic at iWeek, fetched Mia from school, raw juices at Fred & Max, took Mia to art class – they made clay owls, more pitch deck hacking, early supper while Mia did her homework at W Cafe, dropped Mia at her mom’s, nice sunset drive to Cape Town, swim at the Point gym, blogging.

“And in the end we lie awake and we dream of making our escape.” — The Escapist

Coffee is evil.

Friday, TiTea, gym and killer abs class, Century City Connect visit with Michael and Peter, lunchtime walk – great weather, bumped into Abz, a drink at Tiger’s Milk with Paul (PRK), Up Yours – shallow conversations with Dutch and Belgium girls, Skype chat with Jacques, Van Hunks with Al, Hilah and Paul, Van Hunks gets pretty loose in the morning hours, great to catch up – thanks for the birthday gift!

My friend Frans used to say, relationships are like driving a car, the boy is in charge of the accelerator, the girl is in charge of the breaks. Later on I worked out that the girl is normally also in charge of the hand break. ~70% of divorces are filed by women.

Losers don’t flirt. Hmm. I guess I agree, but I’m struggling with this one.

Saturday, woke up at Hilah’s house, bloody marys and scrambled eggs with Paul and Hilah, home, epic nap, watched some Mr Robot, the slow pizza experience with Paul at Mitico’s in Kloof street – unavailable intense alpha female club only child support group meetup – maybe two big loves are enough / par, great tiramisu, AfrikaBurn project chat with Paul and Wouter – we’re still pondering the Sunday parties, watched Trainspotting again… great movie, slept like a baby.

“…and with a couple, I mean one.” — Paul about going to yoga classes with Hilah.

Current state of the AfrikaBurn 2016 project idea: Atomic City Drunk Robot Sundays. Firstly, it’s not a theme camp – theme camps are for losers. Rather focus efforts on making a cool home camp – in the quiet zone – with a deck to have sundowners on. Collaborate with a few similar thinking teams of people to have two afternoon parties. One on the Sunday before the event starts, and one on the Sunday of the event (when most people have gone home). What I like about this plan is that for the 6.5 days the main event is on – you are free to just experience it – no work to worry about.

“Harry Burns: You take someone to the airport, its clearly the beginning of the relationship. That’s why I have never taken anyone to the airport at the beginning of a relationship.
Sally Albright: Why?
Harry Burns: Because eventually things move on and you don’t take someone to the airport and I never wanted anyone to say to me, How come you never take me to the airport anymore?
Sally Albright: Its amazing. You look like a normal person but actually you are the angel of death.” — infatuation can be pretty cruel – not the same person you fell in love with.

Sunday, backups, brunch at La Vie with Paul, promenade walk, spent seven hours on Clifton 1st with Georg and Rob and an Aerobie (see below) – chats about lord of war, relationships, the impact of great swimwear, perfect sunset with a few sundowners, Rob introduced us to the institution that is Aris Souvlaki – Greek restaurant, thanks Rob, open shawarma, Aiden joined us for a drink (he’s moving to Ireland soon), I had my fortune read (Greek coffee remains) by the owner – most interesting, such a perfect day, slept like a baby.

I think I’m starting to have a bit of a crush on Sea Point.

“Pizza is the new cocaine.” Rob telling us how health aware the film industry has become.

Turns out I’m going to meet the girl I’m going to marry in April next year – Greek coffee insight.

“Keep swimming – it keeps you sane.” … no idea how he knew I like to swim. I suspect this bit of wisdom is more accurate than the previous bit.

Processing a breakup is interesting – how the thinking evolves. 7 theories later I’m just filing it under: Not the right time. It’s for the best. We would probably have just become very unhappy and let the relationship end in a much worse way. Smart and wise move…. “When Sally Saved The Friendship With Harry”

Tuesday, first day of Spring, the end end, swim, great catch-up walk with Fred around Woodstock, office, lunchtime walk, booked flights for Jacques’ wedding, left the office after dark, swim, in bed early, slept okay for a change.

Some breakup thinking, what to do now…
a) turn gay
b) start going to yoga classes and install Tinder
c) become a workaholic, or go fitness crazy (still thinking about this one)
d) realise nobody is dying of cancer here, an just get on with it.

Hello single Joe, how have you been? We’re kinda out of unicorns now, bud. The actual breakup (phone call) was Sunday last week, but it only really ended in my head on Tuesday. Super sad. I must be a bit slow in dealing with things like these. Feels like there were just too many variables. I’ve been sleeping very badly for more than a week. Really takes the wind out of your sales. No fun, especially when you don’t really understand the reasons. After you come up with about 4 different theories, you just kinda have to think it’s a mix of all of them. And so begins September. Almost made it to a full year – great memories. I learnt a lot about myself and relationships I think. Probably very healthy ending a relationship with lots of good memories and a series of sad feelings. Seems Brian Flanagan was wrong – not everything ends badly. The bar has been set very high for woman to date next. I guess the trick with breakups is to choose to accept and respect and move on. I’ll let you know if this journalling to get over breakups business works out.

Something about intense woman in an infatuation curve. When it’s good it’s super good. Best drug ever. Remember: Only woman feel infatuation. Only men feel jealousy.

“Most people when pushed to the edge of their refusal to receive love will admit to what may be the most painful universal wound of all – the belief that underneath it all we don’t deserve the love we say we want.” — Elephant Journal

Friday, up at 4:00 for some document writing, drove to Stellenbosch, gym, swim, catch up with Alex at Stomme Jonge, lunch with Theo and Paul at Greengate, a glass of Mullineux Kloof Chenin with Jan at De Warenmarkt – cool place – bumped into Anjela, fetched Mia, a beer with Charl at the Stone Three office, drove back to Cape Town, a rather underwhelming supper at Manna with Mia – I thought their calamari looked awesome the last time I was there, but it was pretty meh, introduced Mia to her first creme brulee.

“Jy lyk of jy goed gerus het.” — Jan

PnP Stickeez seem to be all the rage. Mia has the whole set now.

After a week of financial models, I think I’m way more of a words guy than a numbers guy.

Been pondering an idea, and I’m happy to say that I think for the first time I’ve really solved the why, before I’ve worked out the name.

“Ask why three times.” — Fred

Mia received an Eisteddfod gold for a pig artwork and her choir group received a Cum Laude (prize winners)

Saturday, promenade walk with Dave – who is looking very good – now that we’ve all worked out what to eat – only took like 40 years – from the Sea Point pool to New Port deli and back – while Mia cycled, very cool catch up chat, brunch at La belle in Camps Bay – Mia loved the blueberry flapjacks, ice cream, epic nap, we spent the afternoon on Clifton 1st with Georg – had a long chat with Alan, sundowners and a great sunset, pizza at Posticino with Mia, Futurama, such a perfect day.

“Smart and tall, in that order.” — Alan’s girlfriends spec. He says he’s having more luck with Afrikaans girls recently.

Sunday, up early, notes and photo processing, Green Point Park walk, brunch with Mia at New Port Deli, bumped into Alex and Joost at the Mouille Point play area, Futurama (the one where Bender stars abusing electricity), Sea Point Put-Put game with Mia, Moussaka for supper at CaffeNeo.